December 18, 2025: In the Spirit

The holidays blaze bright as we stumble into the last days of 2025. If holiday music is on your menu, we’ll show you how heading west can fill your ears with seasonal cheer. The Boston Pops are presenting a brass based holiday pops concert at Tanglewood, and the event is just a small part of a move for the grounds to host concerts year round. We’ll chat with principal musicians Mike Roylance, and Michael Winters, and Artistic Administrator for Tanglewood Learning Institute Mark Ruleison about the festivities and more. We also continue our survey of the many musicians who are playing at Northampton’s First Night by getting Bunnies into the studio. They may be the only band that includes a sitting city council member, and their sound is a fun, trippy, magnetic amalgam of storytelling and far out effects.Plus our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern gets a recap of his recent appearance on BBC World, the attempts to stem the tides of war in Venezuela, possible SNAP restrictions, the grim prospects of health care resolution, and after all that, his hopes for the coming new year.